I've been busy visting with family and writing a paper that was ridiculously assigned so that it could only be completed over Thanksgiving break, so my moments to write have been few.

Barney has been teething lately, so we've been giving him rawhide bones to chew on to try and keep him away from more important things like our remote controls and our cats. Because he loves the bones, it's been pretty effective in limiting his inappropriate chewing, but I guess I didn't realize the true extent of his passion until today. He'd gnawed down his old bone to pretty much a nub, so we decided to give him a new one. He got really excited when he saw it, and when Sarah gave it to him, he grabbed it and ran to one of our upholstered chairs to start chewing as soon as possible. Then, with all the excitement, a little pee squirted out.

A little part of me wishes that I could get so excited from everyday things that a little pee would come out.

Things I did yesterday, a long list.

5:30 AM
Ate breakfast.
Edited the materials for a new study.
Made soup.
Went to church.
Got gas.
Went to Costco.
Ate soup.
Cleaned and rearranged the pantry.
Ate 1/4 of an Oreo cheesecake.
Cleaned and rearranged the garage.
Raked and composted leaves.
Mowed the lawn.
Hung a clock.
Hung a sign.
Reinstalled (properly) a door.
Installed a light fixture on a ceiling fan.
Ate a snack.
Watched TV.
Went to bed.
9:30 PM

This morning, after dropping me off at the train station, Sarah dropped Barney off for his mandatory neutering (the shelter where we adopted him will 'prosecute' us if we don't do it by December something or other). Also this morning, the bus had a distinct urine smell. Wait a minute... Somebody call the AP!!! Neutering your dog causes city buses to smell like pee!!! I've made a discovery!!!!

Correlation does not mean causation. Call the AP.

I got an email the other day from my university saying that they were going to raise tuition next year about 6%. Though I wish they wouldn't do it, I recognize that it's pretty typical. For example, the AP reported today that the regents of the University of California (UCLA, UC Berkley, etc.) announced that they were raising tuition 32%, marking a threefold increase in tuition in the last decade! Atrocious, right?

Then I bothered to actually look at some numbers. Next year, it will cost students in the UC system about $10,000 for tuition only (no room and board). At my school, it will cost undergrads $30,000 for tuition only. For some reason, I'm not feeling all that sorry for all those who are complaining in California.

Every workday for the past few weeks, I've been leaving home around 6:45 AM and getting back home around 6:45 PM. Part of this is due to the public transit schedule, but a larger part is due to the fact that I've been running a couple of studies and doing a ton of data analysis on top of my regular workload. The funny thing is that I'm pretty sure I've been enjoying it.

I've never been excited about doing research, but I've not exactly hated it either. In the past, I'd always seen it as a necessary step in the long path to a college teaching position, and I've been involved in an acceptable amount of research even though I always would have preferred to have been learning something in class. As it turns out, I now find my classes to be pretty much getting in the way of my research and my own learning that I'd like to be doing on my own, being directed by my own self.

In reality, I think what really happened is that I found out that when I do research, there's pretty much no one who gets to tell me what to do. Sure I have to follow rules and ask for permissions and submit to the wishes of my various advisers, but there's also no one telling me what topics I have to investigate or exactly how I have to go about investigating them.

Unfortunately, I've been sick for a week, so I doubt that I can sustain my current pace without some ill effects. But even if I get burned out soon, I'm sleeping 8+ hours a night, eating 3 meals (and one snack!) a day, and playing basketball a few times a week when I'm not sick. So it's not like I'd be better off spending my free time watching TV instead of doing work.

On the other hand, in a month, or a year, or a decade, I'm sure I'll want to throw all the world's research into the garbage and open a bakery. So goes the cyclical nature of life.